[Winniesboy]

Interesting. Cricket has always had a plethora of very local, short-lived jargon which you won't find in any lexicon of the game (for instance, the not-dissimilar 'nurdler' is used by contemporary English cricketers to describe a batsman who has no natural syle or flair, but who accumulates runs by dogged determination. Every English cricketer knows what it means, but you won't find it in any cricket manual). I can only assume that 'hurler' was something very local to the expats there - in a lifetime of playing and sudying the game I've never come across this usage. On the other hand you refer to your father as the 'relief hurler', as if there were only one or two in the team - whereas every cricket team needs several bowlers. Perhaps it was their own private jargon for a fast bowler, of which an amateur team might indeed have only one or two.

[arthurus]

Dad got to bowl, I looked up the word, when the other guys didn’t make it to the game. I know nothing of the game except what I could saw and heard when I was less than eight years old. “Hurler” might have just been his word. Dad used to say it that way, anyway. I remember him saying he was glad he was the Relief when the regular “hurlers” didn’t show up. Sometinmes he said there were or were not enough men for a real game. If I were to study the game I would probably learn that a lot of my impressions were not accurate. I was always fascinated by the two guys running back and forth
between the wickets and the upside-down batting. I do know what that flat bat looks like. I have it still in my closet.I had forgotten about it until my stepmother gave it to me when Dad died.